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These pumpkin cream cheese muffins have all the cozy flavor of pumpkin roll in an easy, handheld treat. Each soft, warmly spiced muffin has a sweet cream cheese center and crisp cinnamon crumb topping. You’re going to love them for fall mornings, holiday baking, or whenever a little pumpkin-and-cheesecake combination sounds right.
Why You’ll Love It
- Cozy pumpkin-roll flavor — warmly spiced pumpkin muffins with a sweet cream cheese center.
- Crisp crumb topping — cinnamon, sugar, flour, and Butter create a golden, crumbly finish.
- Makes 24 muffins — plenty for weekends, gatherings, or freezing for later.
- Stays soft and moist — pumpkin puree and canola oil keep the muffins tender for several days.
- Looks impressive, but isn’t fussy — the chilled cream cheese filling creates an easy cheesecake-like surprise in the middle.
Ingredient Notes
Use plain pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. The cans sit right beside each other at the store. Libby’s is what I usually grab because it’s consistent, but any plain 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree should do the job.
Your cream cheese needs to be softened before you beat it with the confectioners sugar. Don’t try to shortcut that unless you enjoy tiny cream cheese pebbles in your filling. I’ve done it. It still tasted good, because cream cheese is forgiving, but it was not my finest hour.
The butter for the topping, on the other hand, should be chilled and cubed. Real salted butter. I know margarine has its place—I’m not here to start a butter war—but this topping benefits from actual butter. It gives you those little crumbly bits instead of a sad, melted sugar slick.
Canola oil keeps these wonderfully tender. I’m normally a butter woman in baking, yet here I’m firmly on Team Oil. See? I can change. Sort of.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted if it’s lumpy—mine usually is
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 1 1/4 cups canola oil
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice blend
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2/3 cup white sugar, for the topping
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, for the topping
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, for the topping
- 6 tablespoons salted butter, chilled and cubed
Instructions
Start with the cream cheese filling, because it needs the longest chill. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened cream cheese and confectioners sugar together for 3 to 4 minutes, until it’s light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl once or twice if you need to. It should look smooth and creamy, not like something you would spackle a wall with.
Scoop the filling onto a large rectangle of plastic wrap and shape it into a log about 1 1/2 inches wide. Wrap it tightly, twist the ends closed, and place it in the freezer for at least 2 hours. If your freezer runs warm, it may need a little longer before it slices neatly.
When you’re getting close to baking time, line two muffin tins with paper liners. This recipe makes 24.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat together the eggs, 2 cups white sugar, pumpkin puree, and canola oil until well combined. It will be a lovely orange color.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the 3 cups flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, kosher salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix only until just combined. Do not beat the life out of it. Muffin batter gets tough when overmixed, and nobody wants a pumpkin muffin with the personality of a hockey puck.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the batter in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F. This hot start helps the muffins rise nicely before you lower the heat.
Make the topping while the batter chills. In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2/3 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Add the chilled cubed butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Some pieces will be bigger than others; that’s fine. Rustic is a useful word in the kitchen.
Take the chilled cream cheese filling from the freezer and slice it into 24 equal pieces. Do your best. They do not have to be laboratory identical.
Spoon about 1 tablespoon of pumpkin batter into each muffin liner. Place one slice of frozen cream cheese filling in the center of each cup. Divide the remaining batter evenly over the tops, filling the liners almost to the top. The filling should be covered as best you can manage.
Spoon about 1 tablespoon of crumb topping over each muffin. It will seem like a lot, but it settles in as the muffins bake. Bake at 425°F for 6 minutes, then—without removing the pans—reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes.
Let the muffins cool in their pans for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. Let them cool almost completely before biting in if you can bear it. That cream cheese center stays hot.
Variations
Chocolate chips can be stirred into the pumpkin batter, which is not a bad idea at all, though it makes these feel more like dessert than breakfast. Then again, they are already basically dessert for breakfast. A handful of chopped pecans or walnuts would be good, too, especially if you like more crunch against that soft cream cheese center.
You could add dried cranberries or raisins, though raisins are one of those ingredients that can be divisive. I like them in moderation.
Adding oats to the topping can create a chunkier crumble, but it gets a little too hearty for this recipe. This version is simpler and better.
For mini muffins, you can use a mini muffin pan, but you’ll need to adjust the baking time and make much smaller portions of filling. A regular muffin is less likely to disappear in one bite while you’re opening the refrigerator door. Not always, but less likely.
Storage & Reheating
Because of the cream cheese filling, store these in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They keep well for up to 4 days, and the spices settle in nicely by the next day.
For freezing, let the muffins cool completely first, then tuck them into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Freeze a few individually to pull one out at a time.
Let frozen muffins come to room temperature before eating, or warm one in the microwave for about 30 seconds if you’re in a hurry. The topping won’t be quite as crisp after refrigeration or freezing, but life is full of compromises. Most of them involve microwave buttons.
Final Notes
These muffins make the kitchen smell like fall without committing to an entire day of baking. The spices drift down the hallway, the tops puff up all golden and crumbly, and the kitchen feels especially cozy for a little while.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients Â
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 cup confectioners sugar sifted if lumpy
- 4 large eggs beaten
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree plain pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 1/4 cups canola oil
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice blend
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2/3 cup white sugar for the topping
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour for the topping
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon for the topping
- 6 tablespoons salted butter chilled and cubed
InstructionsÂ
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened cream cheese and confectioners sugar together for 3 to 4 minutes, until light, fluffy, smooth, and creamy, scraping down the bowl once or twice as needed.
- Scoop the filling onto a large rectangle of plastic wrap, shape it into a log about 1 1/2 inches wide, wrap it tightly, twist the ends closed, and freeze for at least 2 hours, or a little longer if needed so it slices neatly.
- When you are close to baking time, line two muffin tins with paper liners for 24 muffins.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, 2 cups white sugar, pumpkin puree, and canola oil until well combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the 3 cups flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, kosher salt, and baking soda, then add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix only until just combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the batter in the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425°F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2/3 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon, then add the chilled cubed butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Remove the chilled cream cheese filling from the freezer and slice it into 24 equal pieces.
- Spoon about 1 tablespoon of pumpkin batter into each muffin liner, place one slice of frozen cream cheese filling in the center of each cup, and divide the remaining batter evenly over the tops, filling the liners almost to the top and covering the filling as best you can.
- Spoon about 1 tablespoon of crumb topping over each muffin, then bake at 425°F for 6 minutes before reducing the oven temperature to 350°F without removing the pans and baking for another 15 minutes.
- Let the muffins cool in their pans for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack and let them cool almost completely before eating because the cream cheese center stays hot.